The Process of Interpreting a Sentence.
2. The Process of Interpreting a Sentence. As a general law must be operative in every sen¬tence, we must expect to find such a law in what is most central and necessary in converting a sentence into thought, or interpreting its meaning. In this process we perform certain acts and have certain feel¬ings. These acts are as follows. (1) Exercise of Presentative Power. — In the communication of a word, something from without is obtruded upon the attention through the external senses. The mind is, however, occupied with its own processes. If those processes are very absorbing, as in persons given to abstraction and deep reflection, the at¬tention is not readily attracted. If the processes are of small subjective interest, as generally in young and non¬reflecting persons, a very slight cause is sufficient to at¬tract the attention ; but, for this very reason, it cannot be long retained. From these facts it is evident that the perception of a sight or sound is an act of the mind requiring the exercise of its powers. When we read or bear a sentence, a certain amount of presentative power is necessary to put its separate elements before the mind. (2) Enrolee of Conservative Power.—Language, written or spoken, depends upon time. When we look at a picture, the eye receives sitnultaneously rays from all points of its surface, and these form a single image, which the mind receives as one. When we read oi hear a sentence, the mind receives through the .eye or ear certain signs of ideas, not simultaneously, but in succession. Supposing each word to suggest to the mind a distinct conception, as it must to be of any value to the sentence, the conception conveyed by the first word receives a modification from every additional word. The mind must put forth a new effort with every added syllable, to perceive it and introduce it to the attention. At the same time it must hold the 411ables already perceived for comparison and union with those that follow. Here is a duplex act of mem¬iry : first, to recall the significance of each word as it is perceived ; and, secondly, to retain both the sign and the thing signified until the period is ended, so that all the modifications may be made. Here is an expendi¬ture of conservative power. (3) Exeroise of Representative Power.—As the signs of thought are introduced into the mind they, if familiar, readily suggest, or, if strange, totally fail to suggest, that which they are designed to represent. Imagination, by its magical power, combines these iso¬lated fragments of ideas into complete wholes. Here is another expenditure of power, a representative power,—we may almost call it an architectural power, framing together materials which another mind has cut and fitted, so as to construct within our own conscious¬ness the edifice which another has first built in his. (4) Exercise of Realizing Power.—The mind is now in possession of the idea as a whole, or, more strictly, of its own conception of, the idea meant to be expressed. Three distinct acts have been performed, and yet the mind is not assured of the truth or falsity of the statement. In order to decide this, the assertion must be compared with the stock of ideas previously acquired by experience or instruction. If the image presented in the sentence be designed to arouse emo¬tion, the conception must be contemplated, in order to elicit the desired feeling. These two processes, com¬paring and contemplating, require a new expenditure of power, which we may call the power of realization.